Dish tops 300K broadband subs in Q2

Dish Network posted losses of $11.1 million during the second quarter as the number of total pay-TV subscribers declined and the company spent hundreds of millions on new satellites.

Dish's loss amounted to 2 cents per share and compared with a profit of $225.7 million, or 50 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The recent quarter's results included $438 million in impairment charges related to two of the three satellites it acquired through its acquisitions of DBSD North America Inc. and TerreStar Networks Inc.

Total pay-TV subscribers declined about 78,000 in the quarter.

Revenue edged up about 1 percent to $3.61 billion from $3.57 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet expected $3.65 billion.

Subscriber revenue increased 5 percent to $3.46 billion.

The company's average revenue per pay TV subscriber increased slightly, but its population of pay TV subscribers remained relatively flat at 14 million.

And number of gross new pay-TV subscribers fell 6 percent to about 624,000, which was softer than Wall Street had expected.

Citibank analyst Jason Bazinet had expected growth of 675,000 new pay-TV subscribers. And the churn rate, or the rate at which a company loses customers, was 1.67 percent, slightly more than Bazinet's projection of 1.63 percent.

Dish added about 61,000 new broadband subscribers during the recent quarter, up from about 11,000 in the year-ago period and bringing its total broadband subscriber base to about 310,000.

Dish Network posted losses of $11.1 million during the second quarter as the number of total pay-TV subscribers declined and the company spent hundreds of millions on new satellites. Total pay-TV subscribers declined about 78,000 in the quarter, leaving the company still with about 14 million video subs.